The applicant has developed various mechanical systems relating to the wheels and cars of railway vehicles to improve their safety and comfort.
In fact, the applicant has developed guiding systems for the wheels of wagons for railway vehicles in several of his patents. Thus, for example, the zero angle guiding system is described in Spanish patent 200131 (“Sistema guiado de pares de ruedas” (Guiding System for Pairs of Wheels)), and the negative angle guiding system in Spanish patent 194612 (“Suspensión para trenes ligeros con rodal sencillo” (Suspension for Light Rails with a Simple Wheelset)). By means of these systems, the risk of derailing in curves is prevented, guiding the wheels such that when running on a curve at a high speed the outer wheels strike the track with a nil or negative angle of incidence which tends to hold the wheel in the rail.
In the zero angle guiding system, the wheel is parallel to the tangent to the curve in the point of contact, whereas in the negative angle guiding system, a small angle is formed in curves.
These guidance systems for the wheels are applied to articulated trains made up of cars or wagons pivoted to one another at their ends and which are supported at the ends by a pair of wheels or by a pair of bogies.
On the other hand, when mobile ones run on a curved path or track, they are in general naturally subjected to a lateral push toward the outside thereof (due to centrifugal force) which, in the case of railway vehicles, translates into a tendency to roll over toward the outside and into a turning of the cars in the same direction. With the antiroll-type suspension developed by the applicant for the Talgo Pendular family of trains (which is described, for example, in his Spanish patent 424615, “Sistema de suspensión pendular” (Antiroll Suspension System)), the direction of this turning could be reversed such that in these trains, when the cars of the vehicles run on curves, they tilt naturally “toward the inside” of the curves. This allows considerably reducing the lateral force to which people who are inside the cars of the vehicles are inevitably subjected when traveling on curves.
The cars have a certain lateral clearance with respect to the wheelset comprising the wheels; in order to prevent them from coming out when movements due to lateral forces are experienced (for example, when traveling on a curve), side stops are placed which limit the lateral movement of the car, or relative movement with respect to its wheels.
In antiroll-type suspension, when running on a curve at a low speed, the centrifugal force is very small and does not compensate for the natural movement natural toward the inside of the curve which is typical of said suspension, therefore in practice the shifting of the car is toward the inside of the curve. The lateral shifting of the car toward the inside of the curve must be taken into account when designing the dimensions of the car, such that it can comply with the required outer gauge and thus enable its circulation without any interference. This means that for practical purposes, the width of the wagons can be reduced.